Cricket Thread

Saddleworth2 said:
I don't watch much cricket anymore other than the tests so I wouldn't know :-)
Maybe time to get back to 'defend a good ball, punish a bad'. Maybe unrealistic nowadays though.

I would blame one day games but it seams we aren't even very good at that (ranked 8th for ODI).
Click to expand...

It's everything that is wrong with the england batsman, the technique, defence, lack of movement, watching the ball onto the bat, getting behind the line of the ball, lack of time in the middle, swinging from the hips, all the technique of Bazball that is wrong with England
 
domalino said:
Smith had a bad day in his first ever pink ball game, when conditions are notoriously hard to keep in.

Other than that he's been fine behind the stumps and Rew and Cox (2025 country cricketer of the year) are with the Lions.

RE: Openers, Duckett was one of the form batsmen in the world going into this, Crawley is England's joint top run scorer and 3rd in the series overall - he's actually had an OK tour - and we got unlucky with Ahmed getting injured in the warm up match.

As for the injury prone quicks - all quicks are injury prone and there's no one particularly good in country cricket who's not been looked at by this england group. Anderson is the only bowler in England who could have realistically made a difference. I wish he was still there, but he's 43 and didn't take tons of wickets in division 2.
Click to expand...
My point is they haven't given themselves options. Duckett has been shocking and should have been dropped. We should have had a decent frontline spinner playing in the last test. Instead they have someone out there who they have lost all faith with, and plan B is a mediocre part timer.

Smith is an average keeper, who's averaging 19 so far. Agreed Crawley has done ok, he's still only averaging 31 though.

Yes fast bowlers can pick up injuries but Wood is on another level as far as injuries are concerned. Archer was worth the risk, Wood wasn't.

Are you genuinely happy with the squad? Saying that it doesn't matter who's in the squad if they can't even get the preparation correct.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I played quite a bit of cricket when I was younger, enjoyed some excellent coaches, was brought up watching that amazing Lancashire team. Just watched the wickets and some of the strokes England got out to are just laughable. Does any first class English cricketer know how to bat defensively these days? You know perfect a forward or back foot defensive shot. It sure doesn’t seem so. Surely when your team is in trouble you dig in and try and frustrate the bowlers. Not give away cheap wicket after cheap wicket. The pitch looked tricky but these are supposedly elite cricketers.
Click to expand...
It's been a long tine since I wielded a cricket bat (for fun and often to the bowler's delight) but the BBC report on England's innings praises Brook for his aggression in trying to take it to the Aussies and succeeding for a while, rather than playing defensively and getting out as the other batsmen had done.

Off topic and back to that old Lancs team I think it was "golden boy" Frank Hayes who put the first ball he received in Test cricket straight back up the slope to the Lords pavilion, much to the dismay of MCC members who disapproved of such antics before lunch.
 
The Stockport Iniesta said:
My point is they haven't given themselves options. Duckett has been shocking and should have been dropped. We should have had a decent frontline spinner playing in the last test. Instead they have someone out there who they have lost all faith with, and plan B is a mediocre part timer.

Smith is an average keeper, who's averaging 19 so far. Agreed Crawley has done ok, he's still only averaging 31 though.

Yes fast bowlers can pick up injuries but Wood is on another level as far as injuries are concerned. Archer was worth the risk, Wood wasn't.

Are you genuinely happy with the squad? Saying that it doesn't matter who's in the squad if they can't even get the preparation correct.
Click to expand...

What options?

You keep saying “they should have taken more openers, taken a proper spinner” etc.

There is no one better than this lot. This is it.

There’s no ashes winning team overlooked sat behind in England. We just don’t have very good players right now.

We haven’t produced a truly great seamer or spinner or opener for 20 years.

Cricket is bigger in Australia, has more money, better development and so they have a better team - and even they can’t find a good opener or all rounder.
 
AliBobbyJ said:
It's been a long tine since I wielded a cricket bat (for fun and often to the bowler's delight) but the BBC report on England's innings praises Brook for his aggression in trying to take it to the Aussies and succeeding for a while, rather than playing defensively and getting out as the other batsmen had done.

Off topic and back to that old Lancs team I think it was "golden boy" Frank Hayes who put the first ball he received in Test cricket straight back up the slope to the Lords pavilion, much to the dismay of MCC members who disapproved of such antics before lunch.
Click to expand...
What a team that was. Many great memories
  • Barry Wood
  • David Lloyd
  • Harry Pilling
  • Frank Hayes
  • Clive Lloyd
  • Jack Bond
  • Farokh Engineer
  • Jack Simmons
  • David Hughes
  • Peter Lever
  • Ken Shuttleworth

  • John Sullivan
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I don't watch much cricket anymore other than the tests so I wouldn't know :-)
Maybe time to get back to 'defend a good ball, punish a bad'. Maybe unrealistic nowadays though.

I would blame one day games but it seams we aren't even very good at that (ranked 8th for ODI).
Click to expand...

I actually enjoy women's cricket.

It has come a long way except the Aussies still keep winning the Ashes. Atleast Lauren Bell is easy on the eyes over the scoreboard!
 
The Stockport Iniesta said:
My point is they haven't given themselves options. Duckett has been shocking and should have been dropped. We should have had a decent frontline spinner playing in the last test. Instead they have someone out there who they have lost all faith with, and plan B is a mediocre part timer.

Smith is an average keeper, who's averaging 19 so far. Agreed Crawley has done ok, he's still only averaging 31 though.

Yes fast bowlers can pick up injuries but Wood is on another level as far as injuries are concerned. Archer was worth the risk, Wood wasn't.

Are you genuinely happy with the squad? Saying that it doesn't matter who's in the squad if they can't even get the preparation correct.
Click to expand...
To be fair, my main issue with Smith and the pink ball is that he has never even played a day / night game to a First Class level.

How nobody thought it was a good idea for him to at least keep in a few in the build up so he could experience the difference in movement and carry is barely believable.

Why wasn't Smith himself screaming for some game time so that he could feel more comfortable?

Madness.........
 
domalino said:
What options?

You keep saying “they should have taken more openers, taken a proper spinner” etc.

There is no one better than this lot. This is it.

There’s no ashes winning team overlooked sat behind in England. We just don’t have very good players right now.

We haven’t produced a truly great seamer or spinner or opener for 20 years.

Cricket is bigger in Australia, has more money, better development and so they have a better team - and even they can’t find a good opener or all rounder.
Click to expand...

It's the whole setup that's wrong. From the start, there has been no preparation or planning for this Ashes
The timescale from start to finish is a joke; no proper warm-up games to get used to the conditions, then refusing to play at the Australia XI with the pink ball after getting bashed

Central contracts are the major problem, something has to change because nobody else gets a chance when they are in good form and making runs or taking wickets. England should have about 30 to 40 players all playing county and should be given a chance of playing tests. Even get them in and around the camp and then pick your team and the others go back into country cricket until the next test

You need to get them in to see if they can produce the goods. Some players will take to it like a duck to water and rise up the levels quickly

Snobs' class levels also need to stop and stop all this bollocks about who you play for or if you're at the upper-class schools. The ECB are totally snobs and don't even hide it
 
domalino said:
What options?

You keep saying “they should have taken more openers, taken a proper spinner” etc.

There is no one better than this lot. This is it.

There’s no ashes winning team overlooked sat behind in England. We just don’t have very good players right now.

We haven’t produced a truly great seamer or spinner or opener for 20 years.

Cricket is bigger in Australia, has more money, better development and so they have a better team - and even they can’t find a good opener or all rounder.
Click to expand...
It's impossible to watch all the 4 day cricket so I'm not going to name names and say this player should play but the current batsman get picked because they are attacking and score quickly. There's plenty of opening batsman with far better batting averages than Crawley for example.

Boycott or Atherton wouldn't get picked today because they scored slowly. And Bashir isn't even the best spinner in Somerset never mind England.

Take Bethell as a case in point. Is there nobody better than him? He's literally done nothing of note in FC cricket that warrants a place in the test team as of yet.
 
Haha watched the highlights without knowing the score. Saw the aussies getting a taste and thought “oh here we go” then saw duckett give his wicket away again and normality hit. Fuck knows what Brooks was doing but it wasn’t cricket. Shambles of a team.
 
Probably been mentioned earlier in thread but how do TNT get away with their abysmal coverage?

Every time the audio is a half a second ahead of the visuals and leads to a “bowled him!” just as the ball is leaving the bowler’s hand.

Makes it unwatchable and TNT/BT Sport have had this issue for years. Amateurs.
 
super_city_si said:
Haha watched the highlights without knowing the score. Saw the aussies getting a taste and thought “oh here we go” then saw duckett give his wicket away again and normality hit. Fuck knows what Brooks was doing but it wasn’t cricket. Shambles of a team.
Click to expand...

I thought Aussies batted pretty poorly till I saw England's batting!

Clearly Joffra Archer needs to be an opening batter going forward!
 
The Stockport Iniesta said:
It's impossible to watch all the 4 day cricket so I'm not going to name names and say this player should play but the current batsman get picked because they are attacking and score quickly. There's plenty of opening batsman with far better batting averages than Crawley for example.

Boycott or Atherton wouldn't get picked today because they scored slowly. And Bashir isn't even the best spinner in Somerset never mind England.

Take Bethell as a case in point. Is there nobody better than him? He's literally done nothing of note in FC cricket that warrants a place in the test team as of yet.
Click to expand...

Don't take offence but this is very typical of a lot of comments in this thread - "I don't watch county cricket but I can't beleive these are the best players". The best batsmen in England this year were Ahmed, Hameed and Sibley.

Sibley averaged 60 in CC and Hameed 66. Across 20+ test matches they averaged 20 for England.

The reason Crawley's average in CC is bad is because he's around for April and May when it's impossible to bat and then misses the summer playing for England. He's better than both of those.

Also...he's the 3rd highest scorer in the series, for both sides. He's just not the problem.

Bethell is a great young player, he shouldn't be batting at 3 but Eng got unlucky with Ahmed getting injured in the warm up game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top